Two Nashville lawyers are launching a company aimed at helping college athletes get paid.
Athlete Licensing Co. will work as a brand-management, rights protection, collection and monetization company for athletes, according to a news release.
The NCAA, which governs college athletics, announced in June it would allow for the first time college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness. The move has opened the door for a flood of sponsorship deals, with a handful of high-profile athletes reportedly taking in millions of dollars from sponsors. For most athletes, however, that number is far lower.
Locally, Tennessee State University freshman Hercy Miller, the son of rapper Master P, announced in July that he signed a four-year, $2 million deal with tech firm Web Apps America. Vanderbilt University quarterback Ken Seals has also signed an NIL deal with cryptocurrency company FTX.
ALC will be led by President Bobby Bramhall, who is a former assistant athletic director at Texas A&M University and professional baseball player, according to the release. He graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
The company will also be led by Executive Vice President Melina Jones, a Texas Tech university School of Law and Rawls College of Business
graduate and a former general counsel at Texas A&M, responsible for managing and executing coaching contracts, licensing deals and media
distribution deals. She advised on the recent student athlete NIL rights bill that passed through the Texas state legislature, according to the release.
“The playing rules governing NIL rights are still being created,” Bramhall said in the release. “The good news is that no one in the country understands the nuances and complexity of this situation better than Melina. Her expertise will not only protect the athletes, but give peace of mind to the booster clubs, sponsors, agents, brands, advertisers, merchandisers, NFT companies, athletic departments and others who want these athletes to truly benefit from the use of their NIL rights. ALC will not be the high-profile cog in this wheel, but it will be the critical back-office administrator to the success of each NIL transaction. Everything begins with compliance and ends with transparency.”
“We are entering a new era in college sports,” Jones said in the release. “What ALC does is simple – we are the safe haven for the athletes, and for those who wish to engage with them financially. When athletes sign with us, we make sure all of the laws, the rules and regulations – which are different in every state – are complied with so that everyone involved knows from the beginning that they are protected.”
